Throughout the world, pets have become a part of their owner's family. It is estimated that 85 million families in the United States alone have one or more pets. Many pet owners like to adorn their pets with clothing and accessories, not only for weather, but for fashion and special occasions such as holidays. This has led to a growing pet industry, estimated at over $72 billion in 2018 (U.S. only), with around $8B of that market being online.
A large part of the pet fashion or clothing industry is online, for several reasons. For one, there is a huge variance in pet sizes. For example, in 2018, there were around 202 breeds of dogs alone according to the American Kennel Club, though some estimate are as high as 340. Each breed has its own size and shape characteristic along with typical hair length. To compound the issue even further, there are many mixes of breeds (mutts) as well. As for cats, estimates are around 45 breeds. The variations in size, hair length, and proportions makes sizing very difficult. To compound the issue even more, different pet clothing brands do not agree on standard sizes, so a size-medium from one brand is often different than a size-medium form another brand.
For humans, there are maybe around 5 shirt sizes (e.g., small, medium, large, x-large, xx-large), but for pets, such sizes are not simple. Consider two small dogs like a Miniature Dachshund (8-11 pounds) and an Affenpinscher (6-13 pounds) that both weigh 10 pounds. It is hard to believe that the same, “small,” dog shirt would fit both of these animals as the Affenpinscher has a much shorter length (around 12 inches) and much longer hair than the miniature Dachshund (around 16 inches). Therefore, many more sizes of clothing are required for pets. Multiply this by many colors and styles and this creates a huge stocking issue at brick-and-mortar establishments.
Another reason why a large part of the pet fashion or clothing industry is online has to do with pet temperament. There are certain breeds or individual pets that are well behaved when visiting a pet superstore, but some are too aggressive while some are difficult to control. Some will not hold still for sizing a pet outfit.
Given the reasons above, the ideal place to buy pet fashion or clothing is online as a single marketer is able to stock or access many different sizes, colors, and styles of pet clothing. Unfortunately, because there is so much uniqueness of each pet; it is difficult to categorize the size of one's pet when ordering clothing online. In order to size a pet for an outfit, around 11 measurements must be made such as diameter of hind leg, length of hind leg, length of torso, diameter of neck, length of front leg, diameter of chest, etc. As with a human suit of clothing, the knowledge of a tailor is required to know exactly from where to where each measurement must be taken. This coupled with a total lack of cooperation from many pets makes it almost impossible to obtain proper sizing measurements.
Further, a pet outfit shown on one animal might not look as nice when it arrives and the pet owner tries that outfit on their pet.
Therefore, the online pet clothing industry is hampered by a large percentage of returns, frustrating consumers an adding shipping costs that are usually born by the online marketing company, which must increase prices to offset for these costs.
What is needed is a system that will properly size a pet for clothing and accessories.